Tony Plate - NL CY Young Award Watch

Jacob deGrom pitched another fantastic game and showed why he is one of the best pitchers in baseball this past Friday as he and the New York Mets defeated the Washington Nationals 4-2. deGrom (9-9) with a 1.77 ERA went seven innings and allowed one run on three hits and struck out eight and walked one. His fastball which I feel is his bread and butter pitch was effective as usual. He struck out slugger Bryce Harper twice and got him to groundout back to the pitcher’s box. As the NL CY Young Award watch continues deGrom moved a little close to the award. He added to the record of 28 starts in a row allowing three runs or fewer. He has pitched 23 quality starts in a row which is also a record. Bob Gibson held the record previously.

One of deGrom’s competitors for the CY Young Award is Max Scherzer who is (17-7) with a 2.57 ERA pitched this past Thursday against the Mets. He went seven innings and gave up three runs, five hits and had thirteen strikeouts. He was not involved in the decision as the Mets defeated the Nationals 5-4 in extra innings. Scherzer who is close to three hundred strikeouts for the season gave up back to back homeruns to Conforto and Bruce. I was surprised Scherzer’s pitch to Conforto was placed outside since Conforto is known to be a good opposite field hitter.  I thought Scherzer would have tried to pitch him inside so he would not have been able to extend. It would have been more interesting if the two teams would have arranged their rotations in order for deGrom and Scherzer to face off against each other during this series.

The race for the CY Young Award is tight as they go down to the wire with deGrom facing the National League Division winning Atlanta Braves for his next start. deGrom has been outstanding during the streak, however the Braves have the lineup that can affect deGrom’s chances of winning the award just like they did with Scherzer when he faced the Braves prior to facing the Mets this past week. Both pitchers have had a tremendous season along with Aaron Nola of the Phillies who is the other competitor for the award. It is difficult to say who is the favorite to win the award with deGrom leading in ERA and breaking the two records and Scherzer having the better won and lost record and closing in on the strikeout title. Nola’s record is 16-6 with a 2.45 ERA and has pitched over 200 innings. It is also difficult to predict who will win it as all media and fans look forward to their next and final start.